Dec 13 (Reuters) - Kirkland Lake Gold Inc slashed
its production forecast for the year ending April 30 due to
delays in completing the expansion of a mine in Ontario, sending
its shares to their lowest level in almost four years.

The expansion at the Macassa mine will not be fully complete
before Jan. 31 and ramp up of ore production will not begin
until mid-fourth quarter because of software and electronic
issues with some equipment used to hoist ore and waste, Kirkland
said. [ID:ID:nCCN8q8bba]

Macassa, the company's only operating mine that it bought
from Kinross Gold Corp, has been in production since
2005. But the delay in the expansion has hurt Kirkland's plan to
rapidly boost output.

The company on Thursday cut its 2013 production forecast to
between 90,000 and 110,000 ounces of gold from between 180,000
and 200,000 ounces.

It estimated gold sales of 150,000 to 180,000 ounces for
fiscal year 2014. Gold sales were 97,888 ounces in the year
ended April 30.

The initial forecast for 2014 indicates that the efforts to
get the expansion to full capacity will continue well into
fiscal 2014, said Michael Siperco, an analyst at Macquarie
Research.

"That probably has a bigger impact on our model and the
Street's way of thinking about traction beyond this fiscal
year", said Siperco, who rates the stock "outperform".
Continued...